


Staying Right Here

by duskblue



Series: Irondad Bingo 2019 [13]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (i'm sorry), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Everyone lives/Nobody dies.... except May. Sorry, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, May Parker (Spider-Man) Dies, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Break, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter throws up, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-12
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21773335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duskblue/pseuds/duskblue
Summary: Peter has come back after being snapped away for five whole years. He thinks the worst has already happened, so when his aunt is in a bad car accident and doesn’t pull through, he’s devastated. He hasn’t talked much to Tony since he’s recovered and hesitates, but who else does he have left to call?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Irondad Bingo 2019 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1326146
Comments: 25
Kudos: 527
Collections: Iron Dad Bingo





	Staying Right Here

**Author's Note:**

> This one was hard for me, guys. I’m not really an angst writer. As such, while there is hurt, there’s a ton of comfort in this as well. I hope you like it even though it’s a bit different from all my other fluffy bingo fics! <3

Peter somehow got out of the hospital without too many questions. The social worker had been suspicious, but he had his driver’s license with him, and he showed it to her. Surely, she must have thought he looked young, but according to his date of birth, Peter is technically twenty-one, so she let him leave the hospital on his own. 

It feels weird, standing outside in the cold with no more than a hoodie on. May’s car is wrecked, and he doesn’t have his suit with him, so really all he has for transportation is the subway card in his wallet, which, if he remembers correctly from when he last checked, only has ten dollars left on it. He wants to go home and crawl into bed and never get up again, but if he does that, he’ll have to deal with the empty apartment. And he’s not sure he can make it through that tonight.

But what even are his other options? Ned is out of town, and MJ’s family doesn’t really let her have friends over that often. Really, the only person he has left to go to is Mr Stark. But Mr Stark has been busy since he came back. At first, he was tied up with his recovery, and then he was busy with Pepper and Morgan. Peter doesn’t want to bother him. It’s just, besides going back to the apartment alone, he doesn’t really have any other good option. 

As much as he doesn’t want to take Mr Stark away from his family, Peter kind of needs him right now. Maybe Pepper and Morgan will understand. He really hopes they will, he thinks, pulling out his phone with icy fingers. 

**Peter: Can you come get me? Something really bad happened and I don’t know who else to ask. I’m sorry**

It’s an agonizing minute before his phone rings.

“Are you alright?” Mr Stark says instead of hello. 

“No,” Peter says, his voice cracking. He’s been so strong up until now, but just hearing Mr Stark’s voice on the other end of the line is enough to push him over the edge. “May was in an accident,” he gets out. “She--she didn’t make it.”

There’s a slight pause. “I’m tracking your phone right now. Stay where you are. I’m gonna be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Aren’t you at the lake house?” Peter asks, wiping at his tears. The night wind is making his face feel frozen. “Are you taking the suit?”

“Yes, and yes,” Mr Stark says. “I just took off. When I get there, we’ll talk about what to do. I’m so sorry, Pete. God, I don’t know what else to say. How about you tell me what you want me to do when I get there? Hungry? Tired? You just let me know. I’ll take care of it all.”

“I’m cold,” Peter says, switching the phone to his other ear to give his hand a break. His fingers feel numb, and they’re starting to hurt. “I’m cold, and I wanna go home, but—” He stops, unable to say it out loud. “I _can’t,_ Mr Stark.”

“I’m coming, buddy,” Mr Stark says. Peter can hear the power thrusters of the suit. 

“Were you busy?” Peter asks, not able to help himself. “I don’t want to bother you. If you’re busy, you don’t have to come. I’ll--I’ll figure something out. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, Pete. I’m never too busy for you, especially when it’s something like this. I never want you to hesitate to call me. Got it?”

Peter bites his lip, half because he’s trying not to shiver, and half because he doesn’t want to cry anymore. He wants to insist that he’s fine, and he’ll be okay, that Mr Stark doesn’t really have to come. He could say it like a broken record and do his best to convince him of it. Only… Peter _does_ want Mr Stark to come. He doesn’t want to be selfish, but he kind of needs to be right now, or it’s not going to end well. “Okay,” he finally says. “How much longer till you get here? I’m so cold.”

“Ten minutes, buddy. Can you go inside somewhere? I don’t want you to be an icicle when I get there.”

“It’s just apartments around here. I could walk back to the hospital I guess, but it’s a few blocks.” Peter tightens the drawstrings on his hoodie to block out the wind. “And I’m afraid if I go back they’ll see me and make me stay there.”

“No one is going to make you do anything,” Mr Stark assures him. “I’m coming for you now, and no one is going to tell me no when it comes to you. So don’t you worry about that for one second.”

Peter sniffs. Part of the coldness is numbing, and he worries about what will happen when he thaws out. Then again, he doesn’t want hypothermia, either, so he steps around to the other side of a stoop and squats down and out of the wind. “Okay. Let me know when you’re here. I found somewhere with less wind, so I’ll just wait for you here.” 

“Really soon, buddy.”

They chat a little for the next few minutes until the Iron Man suit touches down on the sidewalk. It’s pretty late, and there aren’t that many people out, so no one even notices the suit retract into the arch reactor. It takes Peter a few moments to process that Mr Stark is actually here for him, but when he does, he stands up and runs towards him, throwing his arms around him and hanging on tight.

“I’m here,” Mr Stark says near his ear, his arms warm around Peter. “You’re gonna be okay. I promise.”

“Where are we gonna go?” Peter asks. “Back to the lake house? I’m really cold, Mr Stark.”

“I’ve got a place still in Manhattan. I haven’t been there much lately with the whole healing stuff, but we can go there. You can warm up and then we can talk more and decide what to do. Is that okay?” He rubs Peter’s back, trying to warm him up. 

Peter doesn’t say anything at first. He just presses in closer and holds onto Mr Stark’s jacket for dear life. “Doesn’t Pepper want you to come home?”

“Pepper knows what happened. She expects me to do whatever you need me to do. Kid, please don’t worry about all that. We need to take care of you first.” He pulls back and takes off his jacket, draping it around Peter’s shoulders and bundling him up like he’s five. “Let’s call a cab, okay? First priority is to warm you up.”

It’s pretty late at night, so it takes a few minutes for the cab to get there. Mr Stark keeps his arms around Peter, making sure he doesn’t grow too cold, and doesn’t let go of him until the taxi pulls up. Then he ushers him into the back, climbing in after him. 

“Will you turn up the heat in here?” Mr Stark asks once the doors are closed. “Kid is freezing.”

The cabbie complies, and Peter leans into Mr Stark’s side. He’s definitely warmer, but he’s still shaking. The numbness is wearing off, and the reality of it all is starting to creep in. The guilt from taking Mr Stark away from his family, no matter how many times Mr Stark says to not think about it, is also eating Peter up. He should be alone. He should still be standing out in the cold by himself instead of in a warm taxi with Mr Stark. Mr Stark doesn’t owe him anything.

Not much is said until they arrive at the towering condos in the best part of Manhattan. Mr Stark leads Peter to the elevators, keeping his arm around him until they reach one of the upper floors and exit the elevator into an extravagant looking penthouse. There are a few toys still scattered around the living room, obviously Morgan’s, but other than that, it’s clean and warm. Mr Stark brings Peter to the couch and pulls off his shoes before covering him in several blankets and handing him a box of tissues.

“I’m going to make some hot chocolate, and I’ll be right back. Holler if you need me, okay?”

Peter nods, pulling out a few tissues while he watches Mr Stark in the kitchen. It’s an open floor plan, and though a counter separates the two areas, he can still watch Mr Stark in every step of the hot chocolate making process. It’s a little comforting to know he’s not alone. He wipes at his face and blows his nose before stuffing the discarded tissues into his hoodie pockets. He’s still cold, but the penthouse is warm and so are the blankets.

“Here we go,” Mr Stark says when he returns with two mugs, handing one to Peter and setting the other on the coffee table. “I want to make a few things clear, and you can talk to me about your concerns when you’re ready, okay?”

Peter sips at the chocolate and gives him a slight nod. 

Mr Stark pulls a leg up on the couch and turns a little towards him. “You are part of my family and welcome with us at any time. Including now, including twenty years from now, whenever. We lost fifty per cent of the population back then, and it sucked, but do you know who the only person who was able to make me want to risk everything to bring them all back?”

Peter blinks at him, the hot mug warming his chilled hands. 

“You,” Mr Stark says. “If it wasn’t for you, Peter Parker, I never would have done it. So when I say you’re family, I one hundred percent mean it. And if you want to come stay with us, you are one hundred percent welcome.”

Peter sniffs. There are a lot of things running through his mind, but he’s not sure how much energy he can devote to any of them. “What about Pepper and Morgan?”

“What about them?” Mr Stark says, reaching over to lift one of the blankets up and over Peter’s shoulder. “They love you, too. Morgan won’t shut up about you. She’s been bugging us for months asking when her big brother is going to come over. How would you like that, kid? Do you want to be her big brother?”

More tears well up in Peter’s eyes, but this time he has the tissues, so he sets down his hot chocolate and grabs a few tissues, pressing them into his face, effectively hiding from Mr Stark. “I love Morgan,” he says, trying to keep a handle on his voice. “We haven’t gotten to spend much time together. I’m sorry.”

“Stop, Pete. Stop. I don’t want you to blame yourself for any of this. You’re a kid, too, just like Morgan. Our lives have been really weird since that whole bullshit, and I’m so sorry about May. We have to give ourselves permission to mourn and be sad, but also realize that none of this is our fault, okay? It was hard for me, too, buddy. I still blame myself for losing you up on Titan.”

Peter wipes at his face, lowering the tissues. “That wasn’t your fault. Even if you think you could have stopped it, we tried our best.”

“Right,” Mr Stark says. “It was just really hard to convince myself of that when you weren’t here to tell me, and I blamed it all on myself. But I’ve worked hard on that, and you’re here, and I’m going to make sure you’re taken care of. Okay?”

Peter nods and lets Mr Stark pull him into his side. “Maybe we can watch something on TV and drink our hot chocolate? And then after that can I take a hot shower?” he asks tentatively.

“Whatever you want, kiddo,” Mr Stark says, pressing a kiss into the crown of Peter’s head. “If you’re hungry, I can order some food. I haven’t been here since before everything happened, so all I have in the cabinets are a few dry goods.”

“Okay. Maybe later,” Peter replies when Mr Stark turns the television on. He doesn’t actually care what’s on. He just wants to listen to something and lean against Mr Stark with his eyes closed while he pretends that everything is okay.

~*~ 

When Peter falls asleep on the couch, Tony sits with him for a little while, not giving the TV a second glance, and instead watching the boy’s chest move up and down with each breath. He doesn’t know what happened with May, but based on what Peter said, it sounds like maybe there was a car accident. And because Peter doesn’t have a scratch on him, Tony assumes that Peter was thankfully not in the car with her. His heart breaks for him, and he vows that he will do everything in his power to protect this boy. 

It’s almost midnight when he gets up from the couch, carefully, so he doesn’t wake Peter up. He props pillows around him and tucks him into all the blankets. Peter is warm and asleep, and he’s okay for now at least, so Tony grabs his phone from the coffee table and makes his way to his bedroom where he shuts the door so he won’t disturb him.

The phone rings a good three and a half times before Pepper picks up.

“Tony? Everything okay” she asks sleepily.

“Things could be better,” he admits, his voice soft. “But I got him to the penthouse. He’s safe and asleep for the time being. I guess I’ll just play it by ear, but can we agree on one thing?”

“You’re bringing him home eventually, right?” Pepper says as if reading his mind. “Peter belongs here with us.”

He sits down on the edge of the bed, a sad smile coming to his face. “Thanks, Pep. Yeah, I’m going to bring him home. I’ll probably need a lawyer or two on this. The hospital was fooled by his ID and thought he was of age, but that’s not going to work forever. I need papers drawn up so we can get custody of him. I don’t want him to spend one day in the system.”

“He won’t,” she says, her voice strong. “I will see to it personally. I’ll call the legal team in the morning and get them on it. Why don’t you get some sleep so you can take care of him in the morning. Send me a text or something later to let me know how things are going. Morgan and I can come there if you want us.”

“There’s another thing I just thought of.” He rubs at his face and sighs. “I want to keep the kid at his school if possible. Morgan starts kindergarten next year anyway. Maybe we need to start thinking about moving back to the city a little earlier than planned. The lake house is great. I love it. And Peter loves it too, but I don’t think he’s going to want to live there all the time. His friends are here. He does his swinging thing around here. I can’t ask him to leave all that.”

“Okay, okay,” she says. “You’re right. I wouldn’t want him to leave everything he loves, and we were planning on staying in the city once Morgan starts kindergarten anyway. So it makes sense. I’ll start the plans. You just take care of Peter.”

Tony closes his eyes, feeling relieved to get the confirmation that she’s fully on board. “You’re the best, Pep. I love you so much.”

“I love you, too. Tell Peter I love him when he wakes up, okay?”

“I will. Go back to sleep, dear. Goodnight.”

Tony disconnects the call after their goodbyes and stays there, just staring ahead for a moment. He would do anything to take Peter’s pain away, and it’s killing him that he can’t fix this. Sure, he can do everything in his power to make it easier, but he can’t bring May back. Even with time travel, going back to save May would only make another timeline, and the Peter here in this timeline would still be without his aunt. There is nothing he can do about it.

He should probably sleep so he can take care of Peter when the boy wakes up, but there is no way he’s leaving him alone in the living room. He wants to be there in case Peter happens to wake up before him. So he quickly gets ready for bed and then travels back to the living room, making a little bed for himself on a cozy loveseat that Pepper picked out. His legs don’t quite fit, so he curls them up, hoping they’re not cramped in the morning.

He watches Peter sleeping until he drifts off to sleep himself.

~*~

When Peter opens his eyes, it’s almost like waking up in a dream. His face feels a little stiff from all the tears he’s cried, and his body feels sore, like he spent all night swinging around even though he knows he hadn’t. And that’s when it hits him what had actually happened. His heart is breaking as more tears come to his eyes, easily overflowing and spilling onto his cheeks. 

Mr Stark is sleeping on the loveseat in the living room. He’s not alone, at least. Mr Stark stayed with him this whole time, and he’s grateful, but that doesn’t stop the pain of missing his aunt. 

He’s never been to this new penthouse before, so he’s not exactly sure where to find the bathroom, but there is one easily accessible in the hallway right off the living room. He is nauseous, but he has to pee, so he takes care of that first before flushing the toilet and sinking to the floor, not being able to stop himself from gagging over the opening of the toilet.

“Pete?” Mr Stark’s voice says from the other side of the door. “Are you okay in there? Sounds like you’re throwing up.”

“I’m okay,” Peter gets out, even though he’s really not. He feels like he’s going to die. 

“I’m coming in,” Mr Stark says, pushing the door open and entering the bathroom. He stops when he sees Peter sitting on the floor, leaning over the toilet. “This is not the definition of okay,” he says, slowly getting down onto the floor beside Peter so he can rub his back. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get up. You might have to help me. My bathroom floor days are over, thankfully.”

Peter can’t reply. He can only gag, but not much comes up. He hasn’t had anything to eat in a long time, so at least there’s that.

Tony rubs his back and says kind words to him, just like May would do when he was sick, and it only makes Peter cry harder into the toilet. “Is that it for now?” Tony asks when Peter’s been just crying for a while. He forces some toilet paper into Peter’s hands and pulls him back from the edge of the toilet. “Give me a second. I’m going to get up and get you a little water.”

Peter sits down on the cold bathroom floor, wiping his face and blowing his nose while Mr Stark struggles up from the floor and then reaches to flush the toilet. He’s not sure how long he’s been crying when there’s a plastic cup being pressed into his hand. He opens his swollen eyes to see that it’s probably one of Morgan’s cups because it’s pink and covered in cartoon characters. 

“Yeah, sorry about the cup,” Mr Stark says, lowering himself to sit on the edge of the bathtub. “I thought glass would be a bad idea in this sort of situation.”

“It’s okay,” Peter says and sips at the water. “I don’t care about the cup, Mr Stark.”

Tony begins wiping off his face with a damp washcloth, and Peter wonders when it was that Tony changed--became a dad. His stomach is still protesting, but Tony is making it easier. He probably had practice with Morgan, which makes Peter feel guilty. He doesn’t want to take away Morgan’s dad. He loves Morgan. She deserves her full time dad. 

More tears slide down his cheeks, and he closes his eyes, pushing Tony away and curling in on himself.

“Hey, Hey,” Tony says, getting back down on the tiled floor and pulling Peter into his arms. “I know this really sucks. You’ve been through a lot. But we’re gonna get through it together, okay? I’m not leaving you.”

“What--what about Morgan?” Peter asks, grabbing some more tissues to wipe his tears away.

“What about her?” Tony says, rubbing slow circles into Peter’s back. “She’s with Pepper, probably eating breakfast and watching cartoons right now. She’s fine. Don’t worry about her. I talked to Pepper after you fell asleep last night, by the way. She told me to tell you that she loves you.”

Peter doesn’t know what to say. Of course he loves Miss Potts. She’s amazing. But what does that mean? Does Miss Potts just feel sorry for him? “I mean,” he starts, wiping at his dripping nose with some tissue. “Don’t you want to be with them now? They probably miss you.”

“Nah,” Tony says, patting his back. “They could probably use a break from me. I’ve been there practically all the time for the last few months. Recovery was hard. I think they were getting sick of me.”

Peter sniffs. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you or text you more, Mr Stark. I didn’t want to bother you.”

“None of that! Listen, Pete. I’m going to be very clear about what I think should happen, and just so you know, Pepper and Morgan are also on board. It’s what works best for our family, so I don’t want you thinking otherwise. We can stay here as long as you need, but eventually, I want to bring you back to the lake house. Pepper is going to arrange some stuff today so you can be with us, okay? Then once everything is settled, we’re all going to come and live here, in this penthouse. We’ll fix up the guest room and make it permanently your room. You can go to the same school, do your Spidey thing. None of that will change.”

Peter’s head is spinning. What Tony just said is a lot for his tired brain to take in, so he spends a few seconds processing it. It’s obvious to him that Tony cares for him. He wouldn’t be here sitting on the bathroom floor if he didn’t. But does Miss Potts really want all that? When they already have the perfect family, she really wants Peter to stay with them? He feels like that would be imposing. 

With a few more tears pooling in his eyes, he remembers what it was like when he was a little boy, coming to live with his aunt and uncle after his parents had died. He had felt like he had been imposing way back then, too. It hadn’t lasted too long because he had quickly adapted as a child, but now he’s sixteen and practically an adult. Why would they even want him? He can’t wrap his mind around it.

“Okay, Pete?” Tony says when Peter remains silent.

“I don’t want to impose,” Peter mumbles. “I’ll be eighteen in a year in a half. It’s really not that long, Mr Stark.”

“Peter, this isn’t about that.” Tony’s voice is stern. “We love you, and we want you with us. You are not imposing, you are not a charity case. You are my kid, and I love you. Pepper loves you, and I’m pretty sure you’re Morgan’s favorite person. She wants to be with her brother. So I want you to just relax and let us take care of all of this. Okay?”

He’s really tempted to give in. His heart hurts so badly, and not having to worry about where he’s going to go or what’s going to happen would be a huge relief. Tony says he’s not imposing, but maybe they won’t really realize it until he’s there all the time, taking away from their family. “Okay,” he finally says, closing his eyes and resting his head against Tony’s shoulder. “But if you change your mind, I won’t be mad.”

“No one is changing their mind,” Tony assures him, placing a kiss to his forehead. “How about we get up from the floor and I order in some food for breakfast? Think you can stomach some toast?”

Peter isn’t sure about the toast, but he does want to get up from the floor. The spinning nausea from the reality that the morning hit him with is fading a little with Tony’’s reassuring words. He’s still completely devastated over May, of course, but he no longer feels like he’s falling into a black pit, endlessly, for all of eternity. 

“Okay,” he agrees. “But I’m not sure about the toast.”

“One thing at a time,” Tony says, watching Peter pull himself up from the floor. “How about giving me a hand, though. I’m not as steady on my feet as I used to be.”

“When was that? A million years ago?” Peter says, but grabs onto Tony’s hand anyway, hoisting him easily up from the floor. 

Tony just pulls him into a hug. “I’d be mad about that, but I’m so happy you made a joke. Even if it’s at my expense. And for your information, the stones rewired my nerves. At least for the ones they left functioning. It’s kind of a miracle I can even walk, much less get off the floor.”

This isn’t really the conversation Peter wanted. He definitely does not want to think about how Tony almost died. So he tucks his head under Tony’s chin and holds him tight. “But you’re gonna be alright, right? The doctors--they said you’ll be okay?”

“Of course, Pete, hey,” Tony says gently, holding him close. “I may not be so steady on my feet, and I might move a little slower than before, but I have a clean bill of health. There’s nothing to worry about, I promise. I’m sorry I joked about that.”

“Okay,” Peter says a little tearfully.

Tony clears his throat. “You on the other hand, are practically shaking. I’m going to have to insist you try to eat something. Otherwise, I might have to call a doctor in. With your metabolism, you shouldn’t go so long without eating.”

“Maybe some crackers,” Peter mutters. “Or some toast.”

Tony pats his back a few times and then pulls away, taking him by the shoulder and leading him out of the room and back into the hallway. But when they don’t turn towards the living room, he plants his feet onto the hardwood floor, sticking so much that Tony is forced to stop as well. 

“Where are we going?”

“I thought we’d pick out some clothes for you to wear. Maybe some pajamas?” Tony presses on his back a little, urging him on.

“Yeah, okay,” Peter says, his feet moving forward. “Can I take a shower, too? I feel gross.”

“Of course you can,” Tony says, opening the door at the end of the hallway and pushing it open. He leads Peter into the room, and gestures that he should sit down on the bed.

The room is giant, and Peter can’t help but look around while Tony goes into the walk in closet to dig through his things. It looks like something out of a magazine. His eyes are drawn right to the fireplace where there are family photos. Of course there are several of Morgan at different ages, but then his eyes are drawn to one towards the middle. It’s a photo of him and Tony from before everything happened. They’re sitting in the lab at the compound with giant protective goggles on their faces and grinning at the camera. He’s thinking there is no way Tony would even have that here in his bedroom if he didn’t consider Peter part of his family already. 

It makes the tears come back to his eyes. By the time Tony returns from the walk in closet, Peter is crying again.

He tosses some clothes onto the bed and sits beside Peter, putting his arm around him. “A shower might help a little, but if you want to wait, that’s okay too. Either way, I’m going to order the food. What do you want to do, Pete?”

Peter thinks he will probably break down even more in the shower, but maybe Tony is right, and the hot water will help. He still feels a little chilled from last night, and his muscles are doubly sore from throwing up what little he had in his stomach. So he wipes his eyes and tries to get it together. “I’ll take a shower, I think,” he says. 

Tony lets go of him and picks the clothes back up, depositing them in Peter’s lap. “They’re probably a little big, but this is just for pajamas. We’ll figure out the rest later on. I don’t want you to worry about it.”

But Peter is already worrying. He isn’t ready to go back to his apartment. 

Tony puts his hand on his shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. “You just warm up in there, use my shampoo, Pepper’s shampoo, I don’t care, and then put these clothes on. I’ll be waiting for you in the living room with something to eat. And just tell FRIDAY if you need me. We’ll get through this. I’m here for you one hundred percent, okay?”

Peter nods while he grips the expensive feeling pajamas. “I’ll be okay, I promise,” he says. He doesn't want Tony to think that he’ll drown himself in the bathtub or something. He may be devastated over Aunt May, but he’s not suicidal. Everything hurts right now, but he’s done this before, and he knows it gets better. It’s just ten times harder because he thought his aunt was the last person he had left. 

He’s just starting to realize that that isn’t true.

Tony shows him where the towels are and everything he might need in the bathroom and then gives him one last pat on the back before leaving him alone in the giant bathroom in the master suite. 

Peter is stunned. His bathroom at the compound had been big, but nowhere near as big as this one. It has a jacuzzi as well as a huge shower with multiple shower heads. When Peter turns them on, it’s like it’s raining down on him. He feels like he’s in a steaming waterfall in the middle of the rainforest. The digital control to the shower has Peter so interested in it, that he’s distracted just enough to get through the shower without a major breakdown.

He quickly dries off and slips on Tony’s pajamas before brushing his hair and looking at himself in the full length mirror on the door. Not only are the clothes a little too big, but he looks so out of place in them, it’s almost laughable. If he were in a laughing mood, that is. But they are really comfortable, and the only person who’s going to see him in them is Tony, so he doesn’t really care too much. He grabs his own, dirty clothes, rolls them up in a ball, and then exits the bathroom. 

He can hear the television on in the living room, and follows the sound until he’s there, looking out across the room at Tony, who’s in the kitchen working hard at the counter. Peter can smell the toast, and his stomach growls. He’s kind of in a weird place between hungry and feeling sick, and he’s not sure what’s going to happen. 

But he knows he has to eat, so he throws his clothes on the couch and travels the rest of the distance to the kitchen, where he climbs up on a stool and sits, watching while Tony fries some eggs. He’s flipping one over when he notices Peter sitting there, and the egg almost misses the pan, hitting the edge and thankfully sliding right back in.

Tony puts his hand over his heart and looks at Peter. “You are one quiet kid, Pete. I didn’t even hear you come in. Eggs are almost done. I’ll grab your toast in a second.”

Any other day, Peter would hop up from the stool and get his own toast. He would butter it himself and butter some for Tony, too. He would set the table and pour some juice. But today, he doesn’t even feel like moving. The shower took a lot out of him. And while he does feel better, he just wants to try to eat and crawl back into his little nest on the couch. His chest hurts from throwing up, and his face hurts from crying. He’s even starting to get a headache, but that’s probably his body telling him he needs to eat. 

“Mr Stark?” he says when Tony gently slides a plate of toast in front of him. “I don’t know how much I can eat. I just want to sleep.”

Tony’s eyes look back at him with concern. “Can you try to take a few bites? And maybe drink something? Tell me what sounds good, and I’ll get it for you.”

And then Peter wants to cry because Tony is being so kind to him. He feels like he doesn’t really deserve it. It’s just that he’s the opposite of hungry, and he doesn’t want to spend anymore time on the bathroom floor. It’s only because Tony asked that Peter picks up a half of a piece of toast and takes a small bite, chewing slowly. It doesn’t taste real--just how everything feels fake after May has been gone.

“Here,” Tony says, pushing a can of fizzy soda towards him. “Try taking a sip.”

Peter shakily reaches for the can and takes a sip. It’s not as bad as he thought, so he takes another tentative sip. Even though the toast and the soda both taste horribly bland, it’s not making him feel any worse, so he takes another bite of the toast.

“There you go, buddy,” Tony says, rubbing encouraging circles into his back. 

He somehow gets the whole piece of toast into him and half the can of soda down. 

“Want to try some eggs?” Tony asks when the last bite of toast is gone. 

Peter shakes his head. “Maybe I’ll try something later. Right now I just want to turn on the TV and pretend that everything's okay.”

“Of course, buddy.” Tony waits for him to climb down from the stool and then walks with him to the couch. “I’m going to eat a little and grab some more coffee, and then I’ll come sit with you.”

Peter nods and climbs back into his blanket nest. With something in his stomach and warm, clean pajamas on, it’s much easier to rest his head against the pillows and close his eyes. 

“FRIDAY,” Tony says. “Play something light hearted and funny.”

Peter doesn’t have to open his eyes to know that Ferris Bueller’s Day off is playing. He drifts a bit at first, but stirs when he feels the cushions dip with Tony’s weight a little while later. 

“Shh,” Tony hushes, brushing the damp hair out of Peter’s eyes when they flutter open. “Go back to sleep. I’m going to make sure you’re okay.”

“Don’t go?” Peter mumbles.

Tony pulls the blankets up around Peter’s shoulders. “Staying right here.”


End file.
